Treating rattan



NITED STATES PATENT rnrcno HERMANN ENDEMANN, OF BROOKLYN, ASSIGNOR TOFRANKLIN D. NEAVTON, OF QUEENS, NEW YORK.

TREATING RATTAN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 343,952, dated June 15,1886.

Application filed May 13, 1886. Serial No. $102,078.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HERMANN ENDEMANN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Treating Rattan, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention has for its object the removal from rattan of the silexor enamel covering its outer surface,and to prepare the rattan forsubsequent bleaching and coloring.

In an application for a patent filed by me April 15, 1886, N 0. 198,999,I have described a process for removing the enamel from rattan by theaction of a soap containing an excess of alkali, and this processanswers the desired purpose perfectly well, provided it is applied tosticks of rattan.

Since. the time of filing the above-named application I have found it tobe of advantage, particularly on account of economy, to slice the rattanfirst, and then subject the strands of cane to the process of removingthe enamel, and in doing so the wood surface of the strand of cane isexposed to the free alkali contained in the soap described in myapplication No. 198,999, above named. By this action of the free alkaliupon the wood surface the strands of cane become brittle. In order toremedy this defect, I use a soap which is prepared in such a way that nofree alkali is present and all the alkali not combined with a fatty acidis combined with a weak acid of the character ofan amido acid, wherebythe removal of sileX from strands of cane can be effected withoutinjuring the pliability of said strands.

The nitrogenous compounds of alkalies and amido acids above named areproduced by the action of alkali upon albumen, wood fiber, glue, silk,keratinc, (the substance composing the horns and hoofs of animals,) theepidermis of animals, nails, hairs, scales, and feathers.

The compounds which are produced by the action of alkali upon theabove-named animal substances are many and of varying composition; butthose upon which I rely in the preparation of the soap above namedpartake of the character of amido acids-that is, acids the acidcharacter of which has been greatly (No specimens.)

reduced by the presence of one or more amido groups. The reaction ofthese acid compounds upon litmus-paper is none; but the reaction oftheir alkaline compounds is strongly alkaline, and if a mineral acid isgradually added to such an alkaline solution it continues to show analkaline reaction until all the alkali has been saturated by the mineralacid, just as if a pure solution of alkali had been employed. Thesealkaline compounds yield their alkali to substances of a more acidcharacter, like those composing the so-called silex or enamel on cane;but they do not affect neutral substances in the same manner as purealkali. They do, therefore, not affect the woody fiber of the cane.

The following is an example for preparing asoap of the characterabove-named: I dissolve one hundred parts of commercial caustic soda,containing about eighty per cent. of sodium hydrate, in three hundredparts of water, heat to boiling, and add thereto fifty parts ofhorn-turnings, stirring continuously. The horn will speedily dissolve. Ithen c011- tiuue the boiling for about one and one-half to two hours,and then add to this solution fifty parts of commercial oleic acid.\Vhen all is dissolved, I allow to cool. If the boiling is done in anopen vessel, the evaporated water is to be replaced from time to time.The boiling may, however, be done in a closed vessel and under,pressure, and in this case the time of contact of the substances may bematerially reduced. At a temperature corresponding to a pressure oftwenty-five pounds to the square inch the reaction may be finished infrom fifteen to twenty minutes. If animal substances other than hornturnings are taken-as, for instance, meat scraps-allowance must be madefor the water and fat which they contain. Of the concentrated soap thusobtained Iuse twenty-five pounds, and dissolve them in one hundredgallons of Water, in order to obtain a liquor of such strength as isfound most desirable for the treatment of cane. The cane is introducedinto the abovenamed solution either before or after splitting, andboiled therein until the silex or enamel is removed, which requires fromone to two hours, and I have found that the cane, whether ICO it hasbeen treated in sticks or strands, on bethen heating to theboiling-point for the term :0 ing removed from the solution is verypliable, of one to two hours, substantially as set forth.

and not liable to crack when bent. In testimony whereof I have hereuntoset What I claim as new, and desire to secure my hand and seal in thepresence of two sub- 5 by Letters Patent, isscribing witnesses.

The improved process for removing the si- HERMANN ENDEMANN. [L. S.] leXor enamel from rattan, which consists in WVitnesses: placing the rattaninto a solution of an alka- W. HAUFF, line amido soap, such as abovedescribed, and E. F. KASTENHUBER.

